Wireless communication networks typically include wireless access systems with equipment such as wireless access, control, and routing nodes that provide wireless communication services for wireless communication devices. A typical wireless communication network includes systems to provide wireless access across a geographic region, with wireless coverage areas associated with individual wireless access nodes. The wireless access systems exchange user communications between wireless communication devices, service providers, and other end user devices. These user communications typically include voice calls, data exchanges, web pages, streaming media, or text messages, among other communication services.
In some implementations, Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless networks may prefer to offload or redirect particular communications to alternative communication networks, such as code division multiple access (CDMA) networks or some other third generation wireless signaling network. To accomplish this task, a mobility management entity (MME) may receive a communication request over the LTE network, identify a channel in the alternative communication network, and redirect the communication to the identified channel. However, although capable of redirecting a device to a channel in the alternative network, the MME is incapable of determining whether the redirect to the alternative network was successful and whether the channel was capable of completing the desired communication.
Overview
The technology disclosed herein enhances the redirection of communication requests from a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network to a secondary wireless communication network. In one implementation, a method of operating a mobility management entity to redirect a communication request from a wireless communication device based on channel status information includes receiving, over a LTE network, the channel status information for one or more channels in a secondary wireless communication network from the one or more wireless communication devices. The method further provides receiving the communication request over the LTE network from the wireless communication device, and in response to the communication request, identifying a channel in the secondary wireless communication network to support the communication request based on the channel status information. The method also includes transferring a notification to the wireless communication device to indicate the identified channel.